A Guide to Dry Dog & Cat Food : Australia

We’ve all heard of Science Diet, it’s that stuff all the vets recommend. It’s pricey too, so it must be good! Right?

Well, no, quite frankly.

I’ve chosen the Lamb & Rice recipe for this review.

The first ingredient is Lamb Meal. A meat in it’s meal form ensures us it’s packed with decent meat content compared to regular meat which is largely water prior to cooking.

Good so far…? Or is it…? Well not quite…

The next two ingredients are Brewers Rice and Rice Flour which is a bit misleading. They’ve split the rice ingredients to make it look as if meat is more prominent, which it isn’t. It’s a cunning marketing trick to hide the real truth – rice is the main ingredient, not meat.

The keyword with Brewers Rice is “brewers“. It’s a waste product from the beer brewing industry, sold off very cheaply to pet food manufactures to use as a filler. It provides next to no nutritional value, but the benefit of feeding rubbish to dogs is it makes Hills a tidy profit. Not good for your pooch though, sadly.

Next up, Rice Flour – yet another cheap and worthless ingredient. “Rice” would be a better ingredient, or better yet “Brown Rice”, but rice flour is just another waste product. Then we find Wheat, one of the most common causes of allergies in dogs, and Corn Gluten Meal which is hard to digest and provides little nutritional value.

Shall I continue?

We find Soybean Oil in the food. It’s not the best choice as I’d rather see sunflower oil, fish oils, or even canola oil. Soybeans are another cause of allergies in dogs, and many are intollerant of soy. Flaxseed is a welcome ingredient, providing Omega fatty acids, but it certainly doesn’t make up for the amount of waste in this food.

All in all it’s a food with a decent meat content backed up by tonnes of worthless filler for a very steep price. It makes me wonder why so many vets recommend it (ching ching).

If this has helped you please take the time to share it to other Australian pet owners. Thank you 🙂

Where to buy?

Good points…

Lamb meal first, flaxseed.

Bad points…

Brewers rice, wheat, corn gluten mealare all present. Meat looks low.

Guaranteed Analysis

* Carbohydrates aren’t listed on pet food labels. This value is calculated based on levels of protein, fat, moisture, and ash. Estimated values for moisture and ash have been used where these values haven’t been given (moisture of 10%, and ash of 8%).